It might not be rare for you to find a puppy or a kitten abandoned on the pavement or under a parked car.
Pets are tied up to the shelter gates, some are thrown over the walls of rehabilitation centres, and some are left in faraway places, making their return almost untraceable.
What follows these harrowing instances are even more pathetic — some die of life-threatening illnesses, many struggle to restart a life, and many others are prey to unethical breeding. Either way, the brunt is always borne by these innocuous animals who cannot fend for themselves.
The issue of pet abandonment has always been a prevalent menace in the city.
While many self-proclaimed pet lovers speak of their unconditional affection for animals, that devotion often becomes conditional based on breed, size, colour, and perceived utility.
Animal rights activists, welfare advocates, and pet parents share their observations of such hypocritical actions. The preference in breeds, they say, snowballs into many bigger issues.
Foreign breeds such as Labradors, German Shepherds, Pugs, and Huskies are often chosen for their appearance or function, but the aftermath of these adoptions is extremely heinous.
Sumita Pai, an animal rights activist, notes that it’s the lack of long-term commitments that leads to such abandonment. Emphasising that animals should exist just the way humans do, she says, “People who buy these breeds are from a certain strata of society, and animals are more like status symbols or guard animals.”
She points out a common issue — a lack of emotional connection between the pet parents and the pets. After they are bought, the pets are usually handled by helpers or watchmen, who have very little agency when it comes to decisions of keeping them or abandoning them.
These breeds that cannot ideally acclimatise to the weather conditions need to be provided with the required temperature, suitable food, and other medical amenities, and later, become a burden for many.
The health hazards inflicted on the breed dogs are mostly because of the artificial environment that is created, which leads to issues like arthritis, obesity, and kidney- and liver-related ailments, Sumita explains.
When such issues escalates, pet owners opt to leave them on the streets.
As someone who has been rescuing animals for decades, she says that these high-maintenance breed dogs — from Pomeranians, Huskies, Labradors, Golden retrievers, Lhasa Apso, to Terriers — are all abandoned with complete impunity.
The story is reported by Anusree PV of The New Indian Express